Its been a very busy few weeks in the homey household. 'he' has been away lots and I have had a full on few weeks at work, between the two of us we haven't been home much but we have managed to get a few things done round the house...
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1. I had to sprint from work to make it to the homespun market a couple of weeks ago, it was worth the effort as I bought this super cute crochet white cushion from Laura's Attic, perfect for sunday naps.
2. Before the 30 days of rain set in we sorted out our little garden. As soon as the sun makes an appearance we should have beans, tomatoes, chillies and roses. Not sure what to do with these hyacinths now they have bloomed?
3.Whilst shopping for a birthday gift I also bought myself this lovely Ali Miller wall plate, not sure where it will go yet but it called to me 'take me home', so I did.
4.'he' went to the mid century modern show and returned with this bouncy bunny tea towel for me from Hammade. I was pretty happy about that.
5. We ordered this Eames chair about 4 months ago, it finally arrived and was absolutly worth the wait. I have placed an Ikea rug over it to make it a little more cosy and have named it the knitting chair.
6. Its been almost a year since we received several amazing prints as wedding gifts and we finally got round to getting them framed (well most of them.)
Claire Hartigan is a London based illustrator and print maker, I have one of her bear prints (as mentioned in Valentine Days Prints post) and find her work simply adorable.
I was super excited to find these lovely key rings on her etsy shop, how have they passed me by I don't know. I can't decide which one I like the most, maybe the fox? The bird? Decisions, decisions.
At the moment my keys are a sad little bunch, no key ring love at all, so once I make a decision I'll get one of these. Having a lovely key ring is like taking a little piece of your home round with you as a reminder of what is waiting at the end of the day, so it should be one that's lovely. Oh how I justify my purchases!
Absolutely ages ago, I think maybe a year or two, I saw this print and loved it. Then I just couldn't find it again, I didn't know the artists name and no mater how much I googled bears, rain and clouds it didn't want to be found. So I was pretty pleased when I stumbled upon it completely by accident on Rifle Paper Co.
So this post has a duel purpose, one to share it with you as it is super lovely print and two so it is documented and I know where to find it again.
I seem to have collected many recipes torn from magazine which are not only randomly placed in cook books (so i can never find the one I want) but they are also sorry pieces of paper wrinkled and disintegrating.
'He' kindly found me a a great app for the i pad called Basil, it allows you to add your own recipes or find existing ones via other cookery websites. Its fairly new but its easy to use and has some useful features like a built in timer.
The app is pretty useful and there are others out there if this one isn't for you but there is a problem here... I am a messy chef and its pretty much guaranteed that my i pad will be sprinkled with flour, covered in salt and smooched in butter. So going back to the old school there are many lovely Recipe cards out there which not only solved the problem of documenting recipes but they also feed my stationary addiction...they are now an essential...
I love the Rifle Paper Co cards (they make loads of really amazing products even if recipe cards aren't your thing) And if your not a cook but know someone who is some of the designers offer personalised cards which make the most lovely gifts... hint hint.
I'm not officially a resident of N16 but I love Stoke Newington and am often found mooching up and down Church Street. It's one of my favourite places in London and it also happens to be where some of my favourite people live so its not surprising I am a big fan of this print byAlex Charnely. The print is part of a series documenting London Characters and I am looking forward to seeing what area is next. Can it be Islington please?
I have been using this wallpaper background on my iPhone for quite a while now. And yesterday I found that the artist, MonsieurP, is now offering this illustration and a few of his others as A4 limited edition signed prints on etsy. nice.
Being that both 'he' and I are originally from London means that come bank holiday weekends when everyone else leaves the city we stay as we are already officially 'home'. I love London during Easter as it seems to empty out a little and I find the time to chill out at home, see the family, hang out with some of my favourite people at my favourite places and also discover new ones.
Good Friday: Lunch at my friend Joel, along with some rather cute little people, was so excited by lunch forgot to take some photos. Post lunch we all headed down to Highgate Woods. Can't believe I have never been before especially as its so near home.
highgate woods
my lovely nephew Zach hitting the slides
Zach exploring a Den, who makes these?
tree climbing Seth showing off his skills
serious amount of tree climbing going on
tree climbing and giant ice cream... happy days
later that night...'he' and our friend Luke preparing for l'erocia
Saturday was reserved mainly for mooching, my firend Emma and I headed to Broadway Market in East London. I haven't been to the Market for years but this is what Easter Weekend is for...
Emma enjoying a very yummy lunch...
after snapping the apples above the very friendly farmer gave me a free apple, result
and what should follow a piece of fruit? A giant piece of cheese cake of course.
later that night... we hit the Monopoly board, we are so rock n roll
things didn't go so well for 'he'...
Easter Sunday... Another Lunch with Friends, who also happen to be amazing cooks, hurrah. As well as being a great chef my friend Charlie is also a prop buyer which means her flat is filled with beautiful, unusual and amazing things, so I'm always excited to nose round and see what new things she has.
homemade hibiscus water, yum
just a little* jealous of this print
antique globe...check. dollie...check. amazing vintage wall paper...check. I love Charlie's flat.
fancy pants starters
the happy chef
and a very yummy pie
and mash, i seriously love this serving dish
and how much do i love this tea cosy?
And Easter Monday I made lunch for 10 members of my family, I am not the most organised chef so didn't have a spare moment to take photos but I did find time to cuddle this little pudding, there is always time for the puddings in my life...
So its only taken about 3 months but I have finally completed my first knitting project. Hurrah. A chunky knit pink and grey blanket for my God daughter Amelie.
wrapped up and ready to go.
Its not perfect (sorry Amelie I did try my best) I did drop a stitch and something odd happened half way through when I added a colour and took a bit of bad advice through You Tube. However as its my first attempt and I'm self taught I am pretty pleased with the results and am already thinking about what to make next.
Apart from a fun night out at a knitting circle where I learnt how to cast on (whilst drinking several cocktails, so it's a bit of a blur) everything else was self taught, so if you are thinking about knitting but not sure where to start here is my idiots beginners guide... go on do it.
1. Think big
You need to match your wool and needle by size. The right size needle for the wool is written on the packaging of the wool, this took me a while (and a great deal of faffing around in John Lewis) to work out. And when thinking about size my advice is to think big, big needles and big wool. Creating a chunky knit item you will see results much quicker which is much more satifiing especially when you are just starting out. I worked with a pair of 12mm needles and SMC select wool.
2. Get over the idea that this is going to be cheap.
Wool is not cheap (well nice, soft, chunky wool is not cheap) so don't get into this if you are thinking that by hand making something it will cheaper then something you can buy at the shops. I bought my Wool at John Lewis as they had a really wide selection and I knew if I ran out it would be really easy to get more. I hope that once I find the wool that really works for me I can find somewhere cheaper online, i'll let you know if I do.
3. Have a little one on the side.
Whilst I was experimenting with techniques and adding extra colours I had a s set of small needles and a small strip of cheap wool on the go. It just gives you something to practice on without getting precious about ruining it. I didn't always take my own advice on this point but wish I had.
4. Little and often
In my experience when starting out it's quite easy to forget what you are doing and get into the rhythm. Maybe its just me but if I leave it more then 4 or 5 days I forget how to stitch or cast on and need to use my practice knitting strip to remind me. So I recommend doing just a little bit every few days, even if its just One or Two Lines, and hopefully after a few projects the important stuff will be etched on the brain.
5. You Tube
You Tube was really helpful and is where I learnt most of the basic skills BUT a few words of warning...
At the start of most videos the knitter feels the need to give you a vast amount of unnecessary chat, you just need to get through this by scrolling along until it gets interesting or shout at your lap top, come on just stitch bitch, that helped me through these dull moments.
They all seem to think that the way you hold your working wool (yarn) is of great importance and proceed to show you a really complex method of wrapping it round your fingers. I ignored this, just make sure you have control of the yarn, you will soon work out what is comfortable for you.
Don't listen to the cheats! There are a few videos showing you a quick way round things, don't listen! Every time I tired 'a cheat' my project took a turn for the worst. Knitting has been a around for a long time so I think the method is pretty well tired and tested, plus if you are going to the effort to knit a handmade item why bother taking a short cut.
There is a lot of rubbish out there and you do need to take some time to find a good, clear demo, luckily I have rounded up a good selection below...
Casting on
Judy here uses a standard knot to tie the wool to the needle, I learnt to cast on using a slip knot for the knot onto the needle. Just search Slip Knot on you tube and there are many demos but you can just do a simple knot, if it's good enough for Judy!
Knitting - The main bit
Warning, this women doesn't get to the interesting bit until about 1.20 into the video.
Casting off
Adding in a new colour
Weaving in the ends
If you have added colour through your project, or added in a new ball of wool you will need to weave in the ends, for this you need to big a needle that matches the size of your wool. I thought this was going to be really tricky buts its actually simple and easy to active a neat look.
Listen to this women, it's confusing at the start but it works.
